“Well I did have someone who used to…” He searched his mind. There was a shadow of a memory, but Ian put this off as part of a dream. “I mean no. No I do not.”
“You have better load up on those carbs. We are sending you on a field mission.” He shook Ian’s shoulder and stop shortly after he heard something pop.
“Really? Don’t I have someone who can go for me?” Ian was still recovering from his first field mission in Farous.
“Now, don’t be a baby. You are just going out into the country to investigate some unbalances and disturbances…” He eyed Ian’s arm to make sure it wasn’t damaged.
“But sir, did we not already send two men to that same job almost half a year ago?” With one eye brow raised a silent alarm went off in his head.
Faitsei stood speechless. “Ian, on the other hand.” He grabbed both of Ian’s shoulders this time and led him down the hall. Together they boarded an elevator. “Why don’t we stop at level five and you have a nice talk with The Severs.”
Ian had not heard of this particular type of officer. “And who are The Servers.”
Ding! The elevator stopped. They reached their destination.
“Just step forward and meet them yourself.” The door opened and Faitsei pushed Ian through the white light the greeted them.
Several men, all unseen to Ian, grabbed him and pushed him down on a metal operating table. Before Ian could tell it, he was dreaming. It was a nice dream. To him, everything felt warm and fuzzy. The clouds above him were the first thing that formed. Next came the grass beneath his bare feet. He had been at this place before and he knew it was no dream.
“Damn it!” Temthaw banged the wall in the room that was level six. “You guys have better go deeper and remove more!”
Temthaw had wanted to slap one of The Servers, but knew it could jeopardize the operation. The Servers where a group of usually four to five super powered enabled humans. They used a mix a psychic powers and healing abilities to mush and warp a mind to their pleasing, or in this case, to the specifications of someone else.
With their hands massaging the various dent, curves, and temples of his face, they worked their powers into him. Inside Ian’s mind the sorted through memories and all of the emotions and scents that came with them. Some memories could not be completely removed so they shut off things that might jog his mind. They blocked his mind from recognizing certain scents that could trigger a memory that needed purged from his brain.
In Ian’s mind was unaware of what was happening in the real world. He was so happy where he was standing. Even the breeze that periodically would blow, somehow lifted his spirits. Ian recognized the color of the sky as it changed from a smoky violet to a soft pink. No, not pink. This color was one he had grown quite fond of for some reason. It was a wispy mauve.
His body started to spin itself as he was lost in a high of the most euphoric of emotions. With his eyes closed he had images of funny people. Like the girl with the olive green hair or the guy that was a moving pile of rocks. He laughed at these thoughts. None of it could have possibly been real. Since when was he so imaginative.
Inside Ian’s little world, a black cloud started to darken the sky. It grew and expanded over all of the mauve. Ian did not know this was his mind processing the removal and suppression of his memories. He could only interpret it as the dream ending and he expected to wake up at any moment.
Chapter 10
The Awakening
“So, we’re almost there.” A distant voice called out to Ian.
“Hm, what?” Ian lifted his head off the armrest of his seat. “Oh.” Once the fog in his mind cleared, Ian remembered where he was. “Was I asleep long?” He asked his partner.
“You can say that. Another five minutes and you’ll be able to see fences.” Ian’s partner, Miuan, was driving the black sports utility vehicle to the country side. “Here.” He handed the sleepy lieutenant a napkin to wipe the drool off of his mouth.
“Thanks.” He cleared the drool off of both sides of his mouth and the armrest. “So tell me about these unbalances again.” Ian took a few aspirin that were so conveniently left in his coat pocket and chugged them down in hopes of quelling his throbbing headache.
“Well as you know, the soil in these parts has turned to unfertile dirt. Animals are no longer afraid of man and destroying all crops that do grow.” Miuan made a right turn and pulled onto a dirt road that led to a picturesque red barn. “People are also acting strange. Like some will snap for no reason and go on shooting sprees at the over populated animals. It just doesn’t make any sort of sense. All weather patterns are normal. There’s been no development, land wise, in the past twenty years that would cause the animals to seek new territory.”
“Have you checked the water?” Ian said in one of his absent mind moments.
“Was that supposed to be a joke?” Miuan was not laughing. “Because we have and everything is safe and on the level.”
The duo exited the car and approached an older man with gray hair and tattered overalls as he was working on an upturned lawn mower.
“Excuse me sir.” Miuan shouted. He seemed to be the one in control of the situation, even though Ian was his superior in the case.
Something about the way Miuan ignored his rank and his presence at that point reminded him of faint lemon string, whatever that meant to him. He took the time to inhale the fresh country air and admire the dark rain clouds that had been playing in the sky since early in the morning. The mud sticking to his boots did not seem to bother him as it should have. Being away from the NSSH as far as he was should have frightened Ian, but things felt, well they felt right to him.
“Come on.” Miuan motioned Ian back to the car. “That old timer said that the first thing he remembered about these instances happened further up the hill in the forest.”
“Oh.” Something sparked in his mind. “Seems like I have been down this rabbit hole before.” Ian tapped away at the car window as the rain started to come.
In the North Disten NSSH office, a pair of scrawny men were running through a corridor. Light fixtures blinked like strobe lights as they dangled from the ceiling.
“Oh, crud man!” Trey, now looking like an ordinary man with black hair and chiseled facial features dodged a piece of the ceiling that had begun to crumble.
“Language!” Ray slapped her soon on the wrist. “Now keep moving.”
“If you and dad never started those stupid rumors, ugh!” He skipped over a corpse lying on the ground. “We would have never had to do this.”
Ray handed Trey a small black box. “Just shut the heck up and keep moving. Remember do as I say and not as I do.” She had to add in a bit of motherly advice.
Trey took the box and they parted ways. “Love you mom. Better meet back at the rendezvous!” He took down the crumbling hallway and entered the stair well.
“And I love you.” She whispered on the wind, a common ability in her family, hopping it would reach her son. Ray was very proud of all of her children, thinking about this as she climbed the stair to the top floor where the head of that branch was located.
Several weeks ago, out of spite and anger, Ray and her husband, Cirri, started rumors of top officials disappearing as it was a thought they fancied. After all, if there was no NSSH, then a true and just government could rise and all would be set right with all the wrongs with their world. They took advantage of the officers heading on vacation, which was perfect because no one was every told about where the higher ups were going or that they ever left. Cirri and Ray were quite the cunning pair.
She pushed past the smoke clogging her vision and choking her, and made it to the top level. For a moment her powers wavered and if anyone had been looking directly at her in the wall of smoke, they would have seen a six foot tall beauty with curves in all the right places, but that was only for a moment. Ray gathered herself and burst into the office in the room behind the door at the top of the stairs.
“…” The sou
nd of the air being cut told Ray that she was not alone. Snakes coiled around her legs, she heard the hum of a force field forming around her, and felt all of the elements rush her. Even though she could not see what was going on in the room with the thickest smoke in all of the building, Ray could only smile and laugh.
“Damn!” Arvin, safely locked in his panic room knew that laugh. Even behind a three feet of the strongest alloy his engineers could make up, the man felt defenseless. He knew that voice, even from just her laugh and as he listened to the thumps against ground that told him she was running out of victims. Seconds later, it all fell silent and Arvin knew his men were not the one celebrating a victory.
Click, click, click. Layer after layer of metal melted from her touch. Ray’s prey could only sit and wait for her to break through the last inch and he’d be dead.
“I should have kept you on ice!” He shouted from his safe spot. The clicks stopped. Armin grinned thinking he had gotten into Ray’s psyche. “How you have managed to evade us these past decades, well I can’t fathom how you could do such a thing since we got your daughter, husband, son, and his now fiancée.” Those were his last words.
Outside the room Ray waited for him to sweat all the liquid from his body. With the quips he was throwing out showed he was scared and desperate. Even though she seemed calm, she knew what was about to happen to Arvin would pay for everything he had ever done and everything he had just said.
“Ugh!” There was no final pop into his hold and she completely surprised him. Ray pounced into the room, ready to take one more threat away from her family and the world.
Downstairs three floors down, Trey pushed his way past any remaining guards. The numbers had thinned since his family had first laid siege to the building only seven hours before. Now, it was not like they just stormed the place and killed everyone, because that was not their way. They asked Arvin to step down and promise to never deal with the NSSH again, thus effectively stopping one of the NSSH support posts.
Just like they were expecting, though hoping against, Arvin sent an entire team down to meet them. From there they had to fight their way to the main technical office where they stole all of their information on things like past and future missions as well as all super ability enabled humans locked away in their Zones. This was the information that Trey took to safety as his mother finished the job.
Just seconds after stepping out of the building the top floor exploded with a bang. It sent debris into the air and the lower floors followed in a domino effect. Trey walked away as his job there was done. He smiled and twirled the little black box that held the data stick in it.
Not everything was going cheery for everyone. Inside floor seven was Recarie. They had doped her and left her wandering in a white padded cell drooling all over her paper thin dressing gown. If she had given any care into her life from that point, Recarie’s body would have been strong enough to fight against the drugs. But she was so broken down that at least this way no one would have to hear her crying anymore.
“It doesn’t get any better from here.” One of the other members in the cell, a boy, spoke to her. He flipped a wave of platinum blonde hair, though it just fell back into place. Daouen had not had a proper bath since he was brought to that place. “You know, a woman had told us that you were the one to save all of us from here and I know we don’t deserve it for what we did to you, or at least tried to do anyways.”
Recarie’s consciousness started to fight through the drugs. It was the first time she had recognized someone she had used to know.
“But she’s gone and soon the rest of us will be.” There were no windows in the room, though if there had been, Daouen would have been getting his one last glimpse of the world.
Deep somewhere under Disten Cirri was taping his foot impatiently. “Where are they?!” Justine hugged him.
“It will be alright. Any moment now.” Yasire patted him on the shoulder. “Any moment now.”
Gillian was feeling a little uncomfortable. Sure she had agreed to marry Trey when he proposed on their third date at some musky lake, but Gillian was still not ready to call herself part of the family. Every time she got around Trey, her spirits seemed to get lifted and her happiness seemed to never go away. She was starting to wonder whether it was one of his powers, but they both knew what it really was. The two were deeply and madly in love.
The door creaked. Someone was coming in. Everyone got their hopes up and strained their eyes to see who it was.
“Oh!” The foursome groaned.
“Well so sorry to disappoint you.” Tory joined them by the cauldron.
The weather was getting colder and every now and again he would return to their lair and warm up. It was one of the cauldrons affects, lasting warmth to sooth one’s mind, body, and soul.
“Still not back yet?” He had his hands hovering over the caldron, much to everyone’s annoyance.
“No, not yet.” Cirri pushed the boys tattered gloved hands away from the cauldron. “And shouldn’t you be out there watching after my youngest daughter?!” He was taking his anger out on his usual source.
Every once in a while, Tory and Cirri would get in an argument. Something about Tory bugged the man and since Tory did not take anyone’s bulling, he always pushed Cirri back.
“Come on, old man.” Tory jumped right into an argument. “Just tell me how I am supposed to stay inside the NSSH all day? Hm?! I have done everything I am supposed to and tomorrow I will go back to spreading your rumors and planting those thoughts in that man’s head, but for right now, chill!”
At that exact moment the door creaked open again. This time, it was the two people they had been waiting on. Trey held up the data stick proudly and Ray waddled in after him. She was a little bruised and for the first time in a long time, she was no longer a scrawny man, but the true woman Cirri had married and birthed their three children.
“Oh hell?!” Tory stood there wide mouthed. “And who is that.”
“I, I don’t know.” Gillian was just as puzzled as he was.
The woman had long tan legs and small, plump lips. Her body length gray hair with violet streaks hung over the couch she now rested on. Cirri let his wife’s legs rest over his lap.
“Mmm, thank you Cirri.” Ray purred as he massaged her sore feet. Justine took to tending to her wounds and Yasire brought her a cup of raspberry tea. “Tory could you be a dear and come here.” She signaled the boy to her side.
“Um, who are you?” Was the first thing he muttered.
“It’s me, Ray. Ray is short for Rheanne.” She watched Tory nod as if understanding what was happening.
Under the moon light of the early night, Ian collected samples of soil, leaves, and animal leavings. This was all new to him, but Miuan had given him full instructions and a simple demonstration of how to tell different specimens apart. All of which had been very helpful since he had almost left a dead rabbit behind. After all, what evidence could he find in the carcass of old long ears?
Owls weaved in and out through the stretching tree limbs above, it all seemed normal enough. Under an inch or two of moist black soil, he found grubs and worms, that too was normal. There was no discoloration of local flora and all wildlife seemed to be where they were; owls out and about while the deer and ducks slept. Normal.
Even though everything seemed to be in order, Ian went on getting everything on his list. He just needed one more species of fowl to collect a feather from and then they could head back home to run experiments on his findings.
“You’d think one of those owls up there could help me out. Molting as they are…” Ian shut his mouth once he heard a twig snap behind him. “Miuan, is that you?”
Whoosh! A gust of wind pushed Ian to the ground. Any sane person would immediately get up off the wet dirt and run, but to Ian it felt quite nice. He laid there for a few seconds to marvel at the stars as they twinkled against blue velvet. Half a minute later, the sound of hundreds of dead leaves and twigs breaking ec
hoed in his ears.
This time Ian sprang up and looked around for the source, or sources, of all the racket. Nothing was there. Not a single creature or mutated plant stirred in the forest that night.
“Oh heck!” Ian sighed in anger. “Damn it, Miuan. That was not even funny.”
“At least to me it was.” The younger man slapped him on the shoulder.
“And what the heck possessed you to do something like that?” Ian gathered his bags and began to walk out of the woods.
“Because you are so dull!” Out in the field, officers seemed to feel on the level with their superiors. “And I wanted to see what you got.”
“Some dead animals and leaves…” Ian held up the specimens in his slightly plump fingers.
“No, your powers. I wanted to see what you got.” He dropped the satchel he had been holding. “Let’s spar.” Miuan signaled Ian to come closer.
“Shouldn’t we be headed back into town?” This did not shake Miuan’s thoughts.
His partner charged at him faster than Ian could see. The younger man left sparks of silver energy streaked across the ground as he went for Ian. As for Ian, he wasn’t sure what to do. Sparring was prohibited on missions, as it was clearly stated in the NSSH rule books. Miuan was getting closer and he was running out of options. Ian knew he was no match because his ability was limited to communication and small object telekinesis.
BOOM! Something collided with him. The air burst into a white and blue shimmer when Miuan struck Ian’s body sending the attacker to the ground. Miuan was expecting a little resistance, but not a full scale force field. Since when could Ian do something as advanced as that?
“Dang.” Ian felt up his body to make sure he was still there. After rubbing his hands over his chest for a second time, Ian relaxed. “All here.” He sighed.
Miuan was dusting his butt and legs off as he watched Ian examine himself. “If you send up a force field for just a tackle, than what would you do…?” A dangerous thought crossed his mind and he summoned up his ability.
Misery Saves the Night Page 21